New Ohio Historical Society name part of image boost

Monday

Apr 21, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 21, 2014 at 11:25 AM

The Ohio Historical Society is changing its name for just the second time in its 129-year history, becoming the Ohio History Connection. The switch, which takes effect on May 24, is accompanied by plans to update and re-brand the organization, which many Ohioans view as " exclusive, inaccessible and antiquated," according to public-opinion research.

Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch

The Ohio Historical Society is changing its name for just the second time in its 129-year history, becoming the Ohio History Connection.

The switch, which takes effect on May 24, is accompanied by plans to update and re-brand the organization, which many Ohioans view as “ exclusive, inaccessible and antiquated,” according to public-opinion research. One respondent said the society’s name brought to mind “monocles and brandy.”

“There’s a disconnect between the quality of services we’re providing and the image, hinging on the name,” said Burt Logan, who was brought in nearly five years ago as executive director to take charge of an agency struggling financially, losing both members and private donations.

Logan has righted the ship, for the most part, and now he and the board of directors of the nonprofit organization are tackling the significant task of changing the society’s admittedly stodgy image.

“For the last two years, we’ve been extensively researching this topic about how Ohioans relate to our name, which is seen as exclusive and not having an image across the state that people find welcoming,” the society said in a statement.

Logan puts it more simply. “We want to move the organization out from behind the glass. We’re not dumbing down history; we’re making it more accessible.

“The name change is not a panacea, but it sends a signal to a broad audience that we have entered a new day.”

The organization was founded as the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society in 1885. It dropped State Archae ological from its name in 1954 but has made no changes since.

The Ohio group’s name change follows a national trend. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities became Historic New England, and the Colorado Historical Society was reborn as History Colorado.

Although the change will mean updating or replacing thousands of signs around the state, the core mission of the Ohio History Connection will not change, Logan said. The organization oversees 1.6 million items at 58 museums and historic, archaeological and natural-history sites in 40 of Ohio’s 88 counties, covering 5,000 acres, and 300 buildings built between 1788 and 2010. That includes the Ohio History Center at 17th Avenue and I-71.

Additionally, 70,000 cubic feet of records are stored in the State Archives, Library & Artifact Collections, and 250,000 images are in Ohio Memory, a digital library accessible online.

In the past four years, the number of visits to historic sites and museums increased 95 percent, to 397,000 from 204,000, and membership rose 22 percent, to 7,563 from 6,211. Private donations also have increased.

Although the newly minted Ohio History Connection receives about half of its $20.4 million annual budget from the state in general-revenue or capital-improvement funds, it relies heavily on admissions, memberships, grants, donations, gift-shop sales and other forms of income.

Information about the organization (pre-name change) is available online at www.ohiohistory.org.